


Induced Somnambulism

by rybari



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: M/M, sigrun and mikkel appear but they don't speak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 22:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4762886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rybari/pseuds/rybari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenario: Emil sleepwalked into his dream. Emil – defying all Lalli knew of dreaming – couldn’t or wouldn’t go back to his own dream without help.<br/>Option One: Lalli could leave him. But he could sleepwalk back out and get eaten.<br/>Option Two: He could let him stay, but it would be annoying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Induced Somnambulism

The dream-world bloomed as Lalli grew aware of it. Smears of green and turquoise-blue became trees and a big open sky. Lalli yawned, stretching as he got to his feet. He shed his exhaustion the way most people took off a winter coat, rolling his shoulders as he stepped lightly out of his ring of planks.

Dreams always felt odd in winter; to see so much green when on the outside everything was snowy and dark. He made his way down the bridge and towards the dream-ocean (he didn’t care what Onni said, he would try one last time to contact him). His footsteps were as silent as he wanted them to be, so when he heard a faint _tok_ sound he stopped in his tracks and angled his head.

It could be monsters, but they never left the dark ocean. It could be Onni, but he’d say something. And that useless sheep-herder had just _walked in_.

Lalli concentrated, and a set of planks rose to the surface of the marsh. He sped soundlessly to the edge of his perimeters, where he could see someone at his barriers. He skidded the last metre to stare, unblinking, at the new arrival – and nearly pitched forwards in surprise.

It was Emil, or something that looked exactly like him, sound asleep. He was slumped on the wall like it was a particularly inviting vertical mattress, and Lalli swore he could see drool at the corner of his mouth. He groaned. Stupid non-mages. Stupid Swedes. Non-mages weren’t supposed to leave their dreams. He banged incessantly on the wall to try waking Emil up, or at least make him go away.

In response, Emil let out one perfect, Swedish snore.

Lalli rolled his eyes and reached through his dream-film. If it was a spirit in disguise, he could handle it on his own turf. Emil was heavy and awkward, floppy and dreaming as he was. Lalli fumbled before hooking his arms under Emil’s armpits and getting a face-full of hair. He let Emil drop out of his arms onto the planks. Crouching, Lalli propped one eye open, but it was Emil-blue, and nothing could fake his hair. He sat back on his heels and considered the boy sprawled at his feet.

It wasn’t worth the trip to get Emil back to his dream. He’d materialize there the next time he went to sleep. Lalli, with great difficulty, dragged him over to his wooden platform and lay down next to him, wondering how he got out.

Still. It wasn’t horrible that Emil was here. He looked better in warm light.

\--

The next night he scouted a new area. The alleys he took opened onto a plaza pocked under the snow with pitfalls (His boots either sank to his knee or his ankle, depending). The buildings weren’t in good shape either. They were big and empty but grand, somehow, in ruin, with little flourishes and columns that would be odd on the buildings Lalli grew up with. Like Mora, but back when things were built for the size of it, not for durability. He looked around, but the best bet seemed to be the wide street curving out of the plaza. There was a dilapidated arch where it met the plaza that was still supported by columns showing cement under their chipped paint. He kicked one, and it held.

He got back to the tank in under an hour. For once, Tuuri and Sigrun accepted his notes without asking about them. He drifted through the supper and decontamination. A normal night, he thought, as he slid into sleep.

The sound of the engine sputtering to life and talking faded into the soft rustling of leaves. Warmth rose from the bog, sunlight filtered through the trees. He rolled into a soft mass. He opened his eyes.

Emil was snoring away on his platform.

Lalli jumped. He scooted back so hard he nearly fell into the water. Emil continued sleeping. How was he still here. _How was he still here._ Emil had handed him breakfast that morning. Emil had suited up and taken his coat away from him when he’d tried to sleep with it. Emil was very awake and his dreamself should be dust _._

He prodded him, but Emil didn’t budge. He prodded him harder, and Emil only shifted, grimacing. Suddenly Lalli had an image of Emil falling asleep in some dark, troll-infested building.

Lalli stopped prodding him. He ran through his situation the way the scouts had taught him.

Scenario: Emil sleepwalked into his dream. Emil – defying all Lalli knew of dreaming – couldn’t or wouldn’t go back to his own dream without help.

          Option One: Lalli could leave him. But he could sleepwalk back out and get eaten.

          Option Two: He could let him stay, but it would be annoying.

Unless he physically dragged Emil's body across the dreamworlds himself, Lalli realized he would have to wake up and lead Emil back to his dream whilst they were both asleep.

Their sleep schedules had approximately ten minutes of overlap.

Lalli squinted into the distance. If he came back early enough, they’d let him sleep with everyone else. Provided Emil wasn’t the one to wake up and bathe him. And maybe, a small part of him said, Emil would find his way back out as mysteriously as he found his way in. And he’d get eaten. He unbuckled his sash and tied one end around Emil’s ankle and the other to a tree root. At least he could solve one problem.

\--

He woke and yawned his way through Tuuri’s briefing. Then he yawned his way through his breakfast, and everyone else’s supper, and ran out to do his recon.

The air was so cold that just breathing it felt sharp. Scouting sharpened him too. He settled into it like he was waking up. He went fast, but it turned out he didn’t have to – he’d scouted much of the region before, since the cattank was just rolling through the same street again to do an extraction from a building a few doors down from the last collection. He stood for a few seconds, live-wire with magic and adrenaline and pure nervy concentration that he was surprised he didn’t spark. But he didn’t. That would be unprofessional. He instead slid around a lamppost and made to race back the way he had come when he heard a _crack._

He glanced up. The arch was creaking ominously. He jumped clear of the initial destruction and watched with quiet horror as it crashed down right along the street they had been using. One of the supports pulled free of the wall and brought it crumbling down too, destroying any hope of the tank going over it. Lalli counted to five and back, waiting for any trolls to appear, but nothing stirred. He looked around. There was only one other exit in this place, and it was through a twisty net of alleys on the other side of the street. He needed to go find an escape route and scout a new way in.

Sparking was unprofessional, but he couldn’t help letting a few static shocks of magic out from under his control.

He made it back to the tank as the sun came up. Mikkel opened the door for him and squinted at the clock set in the door, and muttered something. Lalli shifted from foot to foot impatiently. There was about a snowball’s chance in hell he could get to sleep right as Emil woke up, though he might make it–

But then as Mikkel stripped him, Emil appeared with the bath bucket tucked under his arm and a blinding smile. He grinned and shouted what was probably good morning over Mikkel’s shoulder, and Lalli grunted. He submitted to the stupid cleaning, letting Emil wash him as he glared daggers at the sun. He was going to pray to Kuutar to turn it black forever. He was in such a bad mood he didn’t notice Emil stopped talking until he was pulling on his clothes. Lalli glanced at him, but Emil came back to earth and started babbling in his ear again, which. Well.

Lalli didn’t mind the language barrier as it gave him a reason not to listen to people, but out of all the babble he heard, Emil’s was almost as comforting as a lullaby. Lalli started to wonder if Taru called Swedes pretty for their voices or their looks, but decided that he’d think about that later, when he didn’t have Emil distracting him.

Thankfully, Emil peeled off to do other work when he went to find Tuuri. She was stretching her legs in the woods by the breakfast fire. She kept crunching her feet in snow in a deliberate kind of way, which Lalli didn’t understand until she started working her wrists in circular motions. Not everyone had a field job.

“The road’s blocked.” Lalli said when he caught up with her.

Tuuri stopped, frowning. “Wait. Which road?”

“The one you used yesterday.” Lalli pulled on the edge of his sweater. “The big one. The arch collapsed.”

“Oh. Oh _no_.” Tuuri muttered, seizing his arm.

She marched him to the tank and told Sigrun his findings, and he dozed off over the long conversation that followed, which Tuuri told him at last minute was a discussion over even _getting_ the books. They kept waking him up and getting Tuuri to ask him more questions, and he was ready to murder someone when Sigrun finally waved him off. He slinked back into the depths of the tank when Emil showed up and got in his way.

He glared at him so fiercely Emil’s smile faltered. He shoved past him and rolled up into bed, promising himself that he’d find a way to make them both fall asleep when he woke up.

\--

He sat in the dream-world and hummed absentmindedly. Emil’s body was still where he left it. He crumbled some moss on his friend’s face to pass the time. Almost as soon as he did that, he was _out –_

 _\- and_ awake, he started awake so hard he cracked his head against the bottom of Sigrun’s bed. He whined quietly, curled up against the hurt, before peering out. According to the light and the exhaustion in his bones, it was afternoon at latest. He slid out of bed and caught a glimpse of Mikkel as he put another stack of books into the trunk.

Nothing out of the ordinary. He squinted at the building, then down at the pavement. It was subtle, but he could – see –

S͚ͪ͗̾͊̅t̜̬͕͚̰̭͈ͩo̱͎͍̪̟ͭ̋ͧ̆ͮ̅p̏͏̠͕̻ͅp̷̩̮͖͖͓̹ͨ̾ē̉҉͓͇̠̣̙ ͋̒͊ͤ̂̽҉̘d̪̩̙̥͕̅́r̵̖̤̯̮ͫ͆͊ͨ͋̆æ̒̂ͧ̎b̖̭̥̮̻̜͐͐̕è̙̼̉ͤ̃ ̘ͪ͗ḩ̪̈j͚͎̈́a͈l̮̪͉̝ͅp̵̻̖ ͈̜̩͉̈́m̝͍͉̝͚ͣ̊̾̅͒̃̈͝ͅi̡͓̤̜͕̻̪ͬͅgͤͧ̓͛̿҉̖̟̙͙ ͎̩̔̓n͌ͩ͜e̵̘̳͔̣͔̮̻ͩ̎͛j̰̮̗̻̻̋̈̓ͥͬ ̢͔̮̺͕d̛̟̤̻ͮ͌̏̋ͧr̢̳͎̜̪͉͖͌̽̋̿̽æ̭͚͆ͭͬ̂̈̔ͅb͇̿͂ͪ͂̃̅ͤe͚̩͋ ̲̽ͣͮ͂ͧͅS͍̣̘͓̣͚̰ͯ̍̎ͬ͘Ť̟̪̜̪̫̪̪Ở̥̤͐͑̅ͮͧ̽P̗͍͈̗̥P̲̫̫̮͚̃ͪ́ͪ̍̀ͅE̲̖̮͊̒̚̚ ̥̳̗̬̗͆͐͟Ď̗͍̲̣̯̻ͧͫ̔́R̡͙͔̝̱̎̄̽̀ͤͩÆ̼͡B̭̯̜̬͉͕͔̀̌̎̐ͭ̓Eͧ̋̍ͯ͠

Lalli crashed into Mikkel at speed. Mikkel stumbled but Lalli jumped the stairs and the threshold and saw Sigrun immediately as she turned the corner. She opened her mouth to say something and Lalli pointed at the floor.

Sigrun stopped. She held up a fist and then flared her fingers. _How many?_

Lalli closed his eyes for a split second and saw nightmares. He showed four, then changed his mind and put up a whole hand. Sigrun sucked in air, shoved the books in his hand, and turned around for Emil.

Lalli ran out and all but threw the books at Mikkel, and turned around in time to see through the doorway Sigrun push Emil out of the way as a troll appeared and stabbed down at him _._ Lalli closed distance and sliced the thing before he knew his knife was in his hand, and Sigrun was already rolling out of the way, and Emil was _aiming his gun._

Lalli smacked the gun out of his hand before he could trigger it, and stabbed his knife into a fast-moving head. The blood that splashed against his arms was hot, and awful. He stepped back to avoid more of it and slipped on the floor – _no shoes in an emergency why didn’t he put on shoes –_ his head an inch from the ground when someone caught him, and he was staring up at Emil, who was opening his mouth to shout at him. Lalli slapped his hand over his mouth to keep him quiet and jumped out of his arms. The other trolls were stirring now, he could feel it. They ran back to the tank, Emil scooping up his gun as he went, and Sigrun slammed the door shut behind them as Tuuri rocketed out of the street. The injured troll wavered in the sunlight, and collapsed.

\--

“Sigrun says she wants to try again.” Tuuri said.

“No.” Lalli said firmly.

Tuuri turned to Sigrun. Sigrun turned to Lalli. Sigrun pushed the map he’d made into his face.

“She says that the other house is farther away.”

“No.” His voice sounded muffled through the map.

A string of arguments. Sigrun gestured so forcefully she hit Reynir square on his nose.

“Why is she yelling so much?”

“It’s a really important street! That’s why all the houses are so big. The ah, the one with the columns, it’s meant to be like a big book room.”

He tilted his head. The column one didn’t look stable, but-

His eyes gleamed. He could do a quick recon mission and get back _hours_ early. He nodded his assent and dodged Sigrun when she went to hit his shoulder.

Emil was sitting on a bed when Lalli got back. His hands were shaking. Lalli considered them, then folded Emil’s broad hands over on themselves, squeezing them to make sure they wouldn’t move when he let go. Emil stared at him, about to say something, and Lalli rolled under the bed.

\--

He got back so early that he caught the moon going to sleep. He knocked on the door. It was a few minutes before anyone responded, but eventually Mikkel pulled him inside. Moving slowly, he shut the clothes in the UV chamber and sprayed Lalli’s everything before waving him off to bed. Lalli stretched, working out the kinks in his spine as he entered the bunks. Only one other person was awake.

To his utter disbelief, Emil was leaning against the wall and jolted when he saw Lalli approach. Lalli put his head in his hands and muttered a prayer for patience. Of course Emil would be awake at four in the morning. Immediately, Emil was in front of him, worrying touches at his shoulders, his forearms, whispers concerned. Lalli shook his head, grabbed one thick arm and guided him back to bed, where he shoved Emil’s face into the pillow. It shocked Emil into suppressed laughter, but he tried to get up again. Lalli shoved him back down and there was still a river of soft sounds, rising and falling like waves. Emil flipped over, so he was on his back, and tried to rise again.

There was no alternative. Lalli got both knees on either side of Emil’s stomach and pinned his shoulders down.

The babbling cut off immediately, and Emil was…huh. Lalli’s vision wasn’t as good as a cat’s, but it was good enough to see he was avoiding his gaze. Odd.

“Emil. Go to sleep.” He commanded. Emil nodded, still looking away from him. Lalli slowly let go of him, and he started moving again, rolling onto his side. Lalli supposed that was the end of it, and slid off the bed to his own. But when he looked over, Emil was staring up at the ceiling, obviously lost in thought. Lalli grimaced.

If he wasn’t going to go to sleep on his own, he’d just have to _make_ him. He grabbed his pillow and sheets and stepped over Reynir, and pushed Emil none-too-gently against the wall. When Emil leaned over to glare, it changed into that same soft, odd expression on his face when he saw Lalli tucking himself in on the very edge of the bed.

Emil hesitated for a few seconds, then threw his blanket over the both of them. Lalli blinked. It was finally warm enough with two blankets and Emil’s leg pressed up against his. Emil let out a long, slow breath, too gentle to be called a sigh. It puffed against Lalli’s forehead. Lalli looked up. Emil was an eyelash and a half away, but he drew his head back quickly when it was obvious they were too close together, and banged it on the wall. Lalli patted him on the cheek and tucked his head under his chin, just like he did when Tuuri was still bigger than him.

“Good night.” he said quietly.

“God natt, Lalli.”

\--

He opened his eyes in the dream and looked over at Emil. Still asleep. He held his nose but he just kept breathing through his mouth. He slapped him across the face, but it was like slapping wet cement. He even splashed him with water; Emil muttered.

Lalli looked at the water, and then at Emil. He hummed, placing his foot on Emil’s arm, and eyed his uniform for handholds. Then he shoved.

Emil went headfirst. Lalli grabbed hold of his boot to pull him back out when it jerked out of his grasp. Emil broke surface and thrashed his way out of the bog, gasping and coughing up slime.

“What! Where am I?!” he whipped his head around, wild-eyed. “Who – no, wait, I’ve never been here – oh gods. Am I _dead?_ ”

Lalli blinked. That was a lot of clarity for a non-mage. “You’re not dead. You’re dreaming.”

“Lalli!” Emil hauled himself onto the planks and stood up, the water falling off him immediately as he forgot about it. His eyes were unfocused. “Do you know where we are? I think I’m dead.”

“No, you’re dreaming.” Lalli sighed.

“I don’t trombone.” Emil replied.

That sounded about right. Lalli remembered how Tuuri would spout interesting school lessons for once, when she dreamed. Of course, later she told him everything she’d said was gibberish, but he still liked to believe that cats were reborn mages. He walked off, Emil following him in a weaving, stumbling pace.

“You know, Lalli, I’m not sure why, but I think we understand each other _more_ now. Like some kind of…moat…wall? It’s down! It’s wonderful!” Emil babbled.

“You don’t say.” Lalli opened his dream wall, glancing around to check the monsters were dormant.

“I _do_ , cabbage pie guy!” Lalli slowly turned to look at him. Emil didn’t seem to notice. “You seem like a cabbage pie guy. Leafy.”

“Mrrrh.” Lalli decided he wouldn’t tell him that the last time he had cabbage, he dumped his grandmother’s stew out of the window. He pulled Emil out of his dream, ignoring his yelp when the dark ocean got into his boots. “Emil. Can you...” he searched for a way to get it through Emil’s head. “…take me home?”

“Home? Your place or mine?” A slow blush creeped up his cheeks, to Lalli’s surprise. “Home place or your home?”

“Your place. Take me to your home.” Lalli said. Emil snapped out of his embarrassment (Lalli didn’t understand _why_ he was in the first place) and swayed on his feet, squinting. He looked slowly around, as if taking in the dark ocean water and the stars in the water and the sky.

“We’re right on its doorstep!” he sang. He waved his hand around until it brushed against a portal. It grew, in both size and warmth, and Lalli could dimly see a room with a roaring fire, over-cushioned armchairs and fussy gleaming things on mantelpieces and little tables. It was all Emil.

He turned to go when Emil seized his wrist and pulled him into his dream _._

“Lalli, you have to come in! It’s so cold out!” Emil stumbled on the thick rug.

Lalli let the water from the ocean stain it. “You’re home. I need to go.”

“Oh no! No no. No no no.” Emil suddenly looked like he was battling through a storm. He clenched his hands, unclenched them. “This is a dream.”

“Yes?” Lalli peered at him. Emil was breathing with his whole body, his shoulders raising with every breath, his legs shaking.

“So there are no consequences.”

Whatever Lalli could say to that was cut off as Emil grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him. He stood stock still as Emil pressed his mouth against his, the heat of it, and he couldn’t _think_. Emil broke away, and Lalli almost followed him, the absence more surprising than the kiss itself.

“Oh no.” Emil bit his lip. “Oh. I’ve ruined it.”

Lalli put his head to one side.

“I’ve – ohhh I’m so glad that you’re not the real Lalli, but thank you, brain, for telling me what would happen. Of course you wouldn’t like it! You probably haven’t kissed anyone _ever,_ why would you start now?! Oh. But you’re going to find out when I wake up, those _eyes_ of yours are gonna see it on me the second I wake up! You wake up! We both wake up? I’m going to die before I wake up-”

It was fortunate, thought Lalli, that he didn’t have to hear this through Tuuri. He toed the carpet as Emil went on.

“-And actually you’re a wonderful copy of Lalli, my brain is amazing? You’re so pretty. There. I can’t say that in real life because people will hear and make fun of me for being sappy. You have a nice face, you know -”

“Mrhh.” Lalli took a step closer. Emil still didn’t shut up. He didn’t shut up for a second when Lalli kissed him, but he figured it out quickly. Lalli kept still as stone, but he started to realize that kissing probably involved movement. He broke it off. “I don’t actually know how to do this.”

“No, no you did fine.” Emil said slowly, a huge smile spreading on his face. “We can practice.”

Lalli let himself smile back. He looked down at his hand, and wasn’t surprised to see it was fading. Emil was still grinning like a loon as he disappeared.

\--

He woke in a tangle of limbs. He was annoyed for a second before he realized it was Emil’s limbs, and he was soft. Emil’s arms looped loosely around his shoulders. For a few seconds Lalli closed his eyes and pressed forehead against Emil’s chest. He smelled like smoke from woodfires with a liberal smattering of burnt plastic and the sweet cake of soap he used. He waited, but Emil seemed pretty deeply asleep, so he extricated himself and his blanket from his grasp (noticing, without a trace of guilt, that he had somehow bunched it under his side and left Emil with a single corner). He left his pillow under Emil’s head and looked around. Everyone save Mikkel was still asleep.

He followed the sounds of paper rustling and found Mikkel reading in the cockpit. He looked up as Lalli sat next to him, and said something in his rumbling voice. The only word that made sense was ‘Emil’. Lalli shrugged. More rustling, and Mikkel was holding a cookie under his nose. He plucked it out of Mikkel’s grasp and ate it slowly, nibbling around the edges as Mikkel started read aloud to him. After a time, which roughly encompassed the consumption of the cookie and Lalli licking his fingers for crumbs, the sun was touching the sky with faint light and orange glow. Mikkel closed his book and ruffled Lalli’s hair. He left, calling into the van, and the day started for good.

Talk to Tuuri, talk to Sigrun (“She wants to know why Mikkel didn’t say you were back, and Mikkel says you were all asleep, _and_ she says that she’s going to use you on the extraction because you got sleep this time, and could you tell me what this squiggle means? Oh. Deep water?”).

Reynir opened his mouth and let out a stream of pure gibberish before he realized Lalli couldn’t speak Icelandic, but it took a good five minutes before he noticed. Lalli managed to evade him by walking into the tank to get his coat. He bumped into Emil, who jumped in his boots.

They stood in the hallway, Emil saying something and motioning between Lalli and himself many times, before Lalli shrugged and made to move past him. Emil reached out to neaten Lalli’s hair. The movement was unconscious, he could tell. Just when Emil looked like he had thought the better of it, Lalli grabbed his hand and pressed a kiss into his palm.

The effect was slow but satisfying. Emil blinked, once, made to cup Lalli’s face in a dream-memory turned real, and stopped. He turned brick red. Lalli leaned into the touch and waited patiently as Emil stuttered something in Swedish, but instead of getting over it, Emil _ran away._

Lalli blinked. That was not part of the plan.

He emerged from the tank to see Emil yelling at Tuuri. He deliberately let his boots crunch in the snow as he approached, and Tuuri swatted his arm.

“Lalli Hotakainen, did you go into Emil’s dream?! He’s babbling about dreams being real and memory and something about cabbage pie! Fix him!”

“He sleepwalked out of his dream and into mine, so I had to put him back.” Lalli replied. Tuuri relaxed.

“So it was just a big misunderstanding?”

“Yes. Then he kissed me. It was…” Lalli searched for a word. “Nice. He’s nice.”

He could almost see the gears in Tuuri’s head stop turning. She gaped at him, then at Emil, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“Tuuri?” Lalli frowned. He didn’t want her to cry. He tapped her on the shoulder. “Tuuri, don’t cry. Onni is the one who cries.”

“No! I-I’m not sad, I’m just so _happy_ for you!” Tuuri brushed her tears away. “You haven’t said anyone was _nice_ since I saved you from bullies!”

“Well, you are.” Lalli said, nonplussed.

“I know, I know, but you never say stuff like that. Oh, wait, I need to tell Emil.”

Emil was glancing from cousin to cousin, looking like he was about one more outburst away from running. Tuuri spoke quickly.

As she did, the tension went out of Emil’s shoulders and he laughed. He went to put an arm around Lalli when Tuuri’s voice suddenly dropped an octave. He froze to the spot as Tuuri poked him in the chest a couple of times and then let up suddenly, smiling a smile that wouldn’t be out of place on a shark.

“What did you say?” Lalli asked.

“I told him that if he breaks your heart, I’ll break his arms.” Tuuri said sweetly.

“Oh.” Lalli took Emil’s hand, lacing his fingers through his. “Don’t worry. He won’t.”

Emil looked at him with wide eyes. Lalli hummed, then pecked him on the cheek. “I trust you.” he said. Emil smiled so soft that Lalli almost felt shy for a second, but it only lasted long enough for Emil to straighten his hair with a fond tutting noise.

 

* * *

 

Reynir bounced on his toes. His secret was too _big_ and too _important_ for it to stay secret! He wanted to tell someone immediately but Tuuri had just laughed at him, and Mikkel said magic wasn’t real. Which he supposed was fair enough, since he had no _proof_ , but he could talk to Lalli! Through Tuuri. He didn’t want to upset Emil, Lalli and Tuuri since it seemed they were having a big discussion but now right after breakfast it would be fine! And he had to congratulate Emil and Lalli anyway. They were so cute. He was so glad that they fell in love. Falling in love was adorable.

He caught Tuuri as she went to wash her bowl. “Hey! Can you help me talk to Lalli? I have to talk to him about _mage stuff_.”

Tuuri smiled in a way that didn’t reach her eyes, which was a little weird, but Reynir figured that it was just how Tuuri smiled! She was such a nice person. “I – sure. Make it quick, okay? We have to move out soon.”

“Of _course!_ ” Reynir followed her to where they were sitting on a big log. He grinned at them as Tuuri explained the situation, and Emil nodded at him. He was already more friendly than when he first arrived! They were going to be friends. Lalli just glared at him, but he wasn’t leaving, so they were going to be friends too.

“So what did you want to say?”

“Oh! Well. I’m not sure Emil knows but he might be… a mage!”

“Va?”

Tuuri sighed. “Is this what you told me earlier?”

“Yes! Kind of. You see, I thought about it, and I think it’s _totally_ correct, and Lalli will know what I’m talking about. Oh, also, congratulations! For being all in love and soulmate-stuff –” Tuuri covered her smile and Lalli squinted at him for that but Reynir plowed on. “ _Anyway_ , I was running across the ocean because I was trying to find Onni because Lalli told me he didn’t want to teach me (and he punched me in the gut once so I think he’s serious about that) and I know I was supposed to stay in my own dream but I was curious, you know?”

“Wait, you’re too fast. Let me tell him.”

Reynir waited patiently for a whole minute before launching into the next part of his story. He had Lalli’s full attention, after all! He couldn’t slow down. “And anyway I ran through Emil’s dream by accident! It was so funny, you know, he followed me right out! Only mages can do dream stuff, right? Well I lost track of him and I didn’t know what to think for a long time but now I _definitely_ think Emil’s like me, and we can start a mage club, so haha why is Lalli standing up –”

Lalli was reacting a minute late because of the translation, but as Tuuri falteringly translated the story he looked more and more angry. Which was strange to Reynir, because he was bringing good news. He looked directly at Reynir. “Tapan sinut.”

“Lalli, _ei!_ ” Tuuri pushed him down to sitting position, and Emil, just as mystified as Reynir, grabbed onto him too.

“So what does he think about the mage club?” Reynir asked.

As Lalli tried to fight his way out of his grasp he growled out the most amount of words Reynir had ever heard from him.

Tuuri turned. “Lalli says no.”

“He said _way_ more than just ‘no’!” Reynir pointed out.

“Er.” Tuuri looked at Lalli, who was starting to glow, and then at Reynir. “I think you’re better off not knowing.”


End file.
